Norway’s Banana‐Republic Shipping Industry Expropriation
The Wall Street Journal correctly castigates Norway’s socialist government for applying a huge retroactive tax hike on the shipping industry. The only silver lining to this dark cloud is that some shipper will “re‐flag” its vessels in jurisdictions where politicians don’t expropriate past earnings:
It’s almost unheard of, though, for a rich, enlightened nation like Norway to deliberately undermine one of its most important industries. That’s exactly what’s expected to happen tomorrow, when Norway’s left‐leaning government presents its budget to parliament. Included will be a proposal to retroactively tax shipping companies to the tune of nearly €3 billion, a move that could threaten the status of Scandinavia’s maritime superpower.
Over the past seven years, as the regime took effect, maritime employment in Norway has climbed almost 20% to about 100,000 and the number of ships on order by Norwegian fleets has risen more than threefold — keeping pace with rapid international shipping growth since the turn of the century. That boom has attracted the attention of Norway’s finance minister, Kristin Halvorsen, a member of the country’s Socialist‐Left Party. Under her budget plan, all profits reinvested by the industry since 1996 would be subject to a retroactive tax.
Many ship owners are considering reflagging their vessels in nearby countries, such as the U.K. and Denmark. Moving could mitigate their future liabilities, but that will be little consolation to firms that remained in Norway over the past decade and invested in their fleets, only to be betrayed by politicians.
